The present invention relates to small depilating appliances which can be held in one hand for the removal of superfluous hairs.
More precisely, the invention relates to appliances of the type described in French patent No. 2,586,538. In order to pluck-out hairs to be removed, this appliance has a set of two gripping jaws driven in a reciprocating movement of translation along an axis parallel to the opposite edges of these jaws. In addition, the jaws are actuated by control means which are capable of causing the edges of said jaws to open and close successively during their displacement in one direction and in the other. Thus, after the hairs to be plucked were able to engage between the two jaws when they were open, they are subsequently gripped by these jaws when they close, then plucked-out by tractive force by virtue of the movement of translation to which said jaws are subjected. This appliance is completed by a protective grid placed above the two gripping jaws. This grid is provided with a series of slits which extend at right angles to the clamping plane of the two jaws. Moreover, said grid is provided at the center of its internal face with a rib which extends opposite to said clampling plane.
The efficiency of this apparatus is limited by reason of a certain number of factors, the most important of which are the following :
1. In the first place, the existence of only two gripping jaws considerably limits the probabilities of gripping of the hairs to be plucked-out.
2. In the second place, the presence of a protective grid having slits which are perpendicular to the line of clamping of the jaws makes the penetration of the hairs between these latter even more uncertain. In point of fact, the hairs rather have a tendency to be laid flat by said grid against the top face of the jaws.
3. The existence of a rib at the center of the internal face of the protective grid has the effect of making it even more probable that the hairs will be laid flat on the top of the jaws instead of being caused to engage between the edges of these latter.
4. Moreover, as a result of the thickness of said protective grid, those hairs which are in fact pinched by the jaws are not gripped at the level of the skin. In consequence, these hairs are sheared between the jaws and the grid, there being thus every chance that they will be cut instead of being plucked-out.
It is for these reasons that the aim of the present invention is to provide an improved appliance of the type considered in which the disadvantages set forth in the foregoing are removed. To this end, said appliance is so designed as to be no longer provided with any protective grid and to have an increased capacity for gripping the hairs to be plucked.